DALLAS — It was a timely presentation at Potato Expo 2026 when National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles and Beth Johnson, CEO and founder of Food Directions, a Washington D.C.-based government relations and food policy consulting firm, took the stage to analyze the new federal nutrition guidelines released earlier that day.
Johnson says the overall impact of these new dietary guidelines on the potato industry is relatively positive, despite some emerging challenges. She credited this success largely to the proactive efforts of the National Potato Council and Potatoes USA to ensure the potato maintained its critical classification as a vegetable.
“We want to make sure that we get those policies right to maintain the competitive advantage for U.S. potato growers,” Quarles says.
Unprecedented Speed in Food Policy
Johnson says one thing to remember is just how active the Make America Healthy Again group has been.
She put into perspective that the MAHA commission began in February 2025 and, by May, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had already announced removing petroleum-based dyes from food. The commission’s first assessment focused on ultra-processed foods. Then the USDA worked with states to remove sugar-sweetened beverages from the food permitted under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Johnson says that while this is President Donald Trump’s second term, what MAHA has accomplished within a year has been remarkable.
“We just don’t see food policy action like that,” she says. “It’s not typical, and we do anticipate that this is going to continue at least through 2026, at least through the midterms.”
Securing the ‘Vegetable’ Label
Johnson says that as part of the lead-up to these new dietary guidelines, the potato industry had focused strongly on the importance of the potato staying in the vegetable category. Another focus was on increasing potato and vegetable consumption, not decreasing it. And with the new dietary guidelines, she says it’s even more important.
“We were worried about how it would be looked at in regards to refined carbohydrates, starch, etc.,” she says. “Given the outcome of this particular dietary guidelines … the focus on grains has gone from high to extremely low. So, now the way that the graphic is, it’s protein and vegetables and then grains at the very tip.”
Johnson lauds the industry’s work to promote the potato’s benefits and place in the vegetable category as a big success. She also points out that a white potato is a prominent part of the graphics for the new dietary guidelines.
“They do talk about eating a variety of vegetables, nutrient-dense vegetables,” she says. “So, a vegetable is a vegetable now, whether it’s green or yellow or blue or starchy or whatever it is, and the recommendation is for three servings of vegetables a day.”
These guidelines, Johnson says, really emphasize whole foods.
“They speak quite a bit about the problems associated with highly processed foods,” she says. “They don’t actually define highly processed or ultra-processed, but they lean into it a bit, I would say and note the markers of how they would look at that as extracted ingredients, packaging materials, chemical additives, refined carbohydrates and added sugars.”
With that understanding, there might be some challenges in how processed potato products will be looked at, Johnson says. The new guidelines focus on glycemic index, and vegetables do not fall under that scrutiny, but she says it’s something she and her team will continue to monitor to ensure the focus remains on added sugar.
“We’re going to fight hard to make sure that those are maintained in a school meals program and government procurement programs,” she says.
Johnson says what will be interesting to follow is how these guidelines will play into school meal programs, SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC.
Quarles pointed to an effort during the Obama administration to eliminate potatoes in school meals. He says the contrast between then and the new dietary guidelines announcement is positive momentum. He points to how school nutritionists helped vocalize how vital a potato is in school meals.
Bipartisan MAHA Race and Midterm Outlook
“Agriculture is the MAHA movement,” Quarles says. “There is a very important thread running through the MAHA movement that we want to make Americans of all ages more healthy. There are nutritional problems with our population, but you want to do it in a common-sense, science-based way. It can’t just be the loudest voice on social media who’s making policy. It needs to have a background of nutrition science and things that are implementable to folks in the schools and in senior feeding programs.”
Johnson says another thing for the potato industry to keep an eye on is what happens in the states. With midterm elections in 2026, she sees both parties looking to capture the MAHA vote.
“It really is kind of a fight to see which party can out MAHA the other one,” she says. “We’ve got a lot of Democratic governors that are interested in taking some of these things on so that they can show and they can try to win those MAHA votes as well in 2026.”
Next Battleground is Defining Ultra-Processed Foods
Quarles asked Johnson to expand more on the move to define ultra-processed foods. The effort at the federal level is to hopefully create some sort of uniform standard of definition, she says, as states such as California have already begun efforts to define ultra-processed foods. She suspects other states will follow a similar path. Johnson says she anticipates a definition at the federal level to come in the next six to nine months.
“In all likelihood, it’s going to be the extra additives, high salt, high sugar, that we’re going to have to be looking at,” she says.
That definition would likely play out in updates to the school meal regulations, WIC requirements and SNAP-eligible foods, though Johnson says it might be a challenge to work through all the whole foods within a school lunch.
Quarles asked Johnson about the likelihood that the MAHA commission would classify a derivative of potatoes made from three ingredients that could be produced in a home kitchen as an ultra-processed food.
“If we’re talking potato, salt and oil, I think this is going to be difficult for the administration, for those in charge, for those who already have an opinion of what is an ultra-processed food, including snacks. … I think it is going to be a challenge for them to be able to figure out how to set the definition so that it incorporates things with very few ingredients that could be made in your home,” she says.
Johnson says the administration’s goal is to change the diet, but that is a long-term process and more research is needed. She says those in the administration say it’s a 10-to-15-year goal.
“I was on another call where they said that they’re hoping to complete the next round of dietary guidelines before the Trump administration leaves,” she says.
